RP: Out for a Drink

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

Date: 12 Dec 2001
Characters: Charlie Weasley, Lavender Brown
Setting: The World's End Pub
Content: PG
Status: Private : Open



The day had dragged on, with one thing after another, but finally, it seemed as if the dragons were nesting calmly and the issues with the unicorns had been ironed out. Charlie apparated home just after 6:00 pm and saw Ginny's lights were on, so he popped over to see if she'd have dinner with him before letting himself into his house. He took a quick shower and that's when the trouble began - as he considered his wardrobe seriously. It had been a very long time since Charlie had gone on a date and he hadn't really had a great deal to pack when the portal was finally cleared for passage. Everything he had came from his time on the Romanian reserve, which consisted of jeans and a variety of sweaters and t-shirts.

Opting for jeans (not that he had a choice there) and one of the two button-downs he found in the back of his closet, Charlie dressed quickly and headed next door to have dinner with his baby sister. Ginny was more than cooperative when he asked about Lavender but she put on the brakes when she realized that was who he was meeting later, with her declarations that he was too old for her classmate and too much of a player. Where his sister got the idea that he had a wild sex life was beyond him but Charlie did his best to set her straight.

It was getting close to 8:00 pm when he apparated to the path before The World's End, seeing the deck was already teeming with other patrons but he found a table near the edge and claimed it. The barmaid came out a few minutes later and he ordered a beer with a side of chips, letting her know that he was expecting company. She retreated into the pub itself and Charlie set his datapad on silent mode, taking a minute to check his messages while he waited. There were two reports from the Ark that had arrived while he was having dinner and he pulled the first one up to read - John's review of his Chinese Fireball's breeding attempts over the last month.

Comments

[tt_lavender.insanejournal.com]

For Lavender, today had been one of the quieter days on the settlement, though she did stop one minor disagreement between vendors in the marketplace when one accused the other of overstepping the boundaries of their stall. After work, she'd treated herself to a bath, carefully pouring out a measure of bath salts she'd brought with her, and then eaten dinner while she let her hair dry naturally. As she took in the sight of her wardrobe, Lavender tried to think of her last date. It had been a while ago, despite her best efforts. Work had engrossed so much of her life, especially when some of the skills needed hadn't come as naturally to her as it did to others.

She left her house in jeans and a blouse that thankfully didn't gape at the bust. Her hair was twisted up into a bun that looked deceptively casual but had in fact taken a nervous thirty minutes to make it look so relaxed. Lavender was locking her door when she realised that habit had caused her to holster her wand to her leg. Embarrassed, she quickly popped back inside to remove the holster.

Apparating to the pub, Lavender spotted Charlie quickly, pleased to see that he'd got one of the tables on the deck. Inside could potentially be a little claustrophobic. "Hi, Charlie," she said, approaching the table with a slightly shy smile. "You haven't been waiting long, have you?"

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

He happened to glance up just as Lavender approached the table and Charlie stood, smiling, as he circled the table and held out her chair for her. She'd dressed differently then when he'd met her at the Ark but she still looked comfortable. "Hello," he replied. "No, not long at all."

"I was just catching up on some reading - nothing too important," Charlie explained as he took his own seat again, pausing for a moment to put the datapad back on silent and moved it off to the side. "How was your day?" he asked, relaxing back in his seat.

[tt_lavender.insanejournal.com]

"Thanks," Lavender said with a smile as he pulled out her chair. Well, that certainly set the evening off on a good note. She always enjoyed little chivalrous touches like that, so to have it done unprompted was especially nice.

"Oh, pretty standard, really. Work mostly involved keeping an eye on the market. Not quite as interesting as the weekend when I found a group of teenagers who'd made tea from a local plant which has slightly hallucinogenic properties when ingested." Lavender grinned. "One of them thought I was a cat and kept trying to pet me." It had been the most eventful shift she'd done since coming through the Portal. "What about you? Been up to much?"

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

"They aren't the first to do that. I found two Keeper trainees acting loopy a month ago - seems they heard 'tea' and that was all they bothered to listen to. They managed to get into the dragon nesting area before I found them. Luckily, the dragons weren't in the nests at the time," Charlie related his own tale of the tea that was now a running joke around the Ark.

The barmaid came over with his beer and chips, staying only long enough to take Lavender's order before retreating. He nodded to the chips as he said. "Help yourself, please," Charlie paused before answering her question. "There was an issue with the unicorns earlier that took most of the day. A muggle - she'd been through our tours before - several times and she had a big interest in the unicorns in particular."

"Well, we didn't think anything of it. We get muggles who come back for the tours just to see the dragons, right, so we didn't make any connections. This muggle? She slipped out of the morning tour group after they left the unicorn area," he continued, pausing to take a drink of his beer.

[tt_lavender.insanejournal.com]

Lavender chuckled, sure it wouldn't be the last time she heard of people having similar experiences. While some of the local flora looked familiar, there were differences. It was enough to make some of the Herbologists practically drool at the prospect of cataloguing everything they could find, but it was also something that would likely keep them busy for years to come. "These poor kids are in for a whole series of lectures by the sound of it. I don't think that they'll be having any more tea parties for a while. At least, I hope not."

When the barmaid came over, Lavender ordered herself half a pint. She smiled when Charlie offered her chips. "Thanks." Despite having recently had dinner, chips - along with chocolate - were a bit of a weakness for her. It was hard to resist.

As Charlie regaled his work tale, Lavender bit her lip. "Should I be worrying about there being unicorn gouging in this story?" she asked, torn between laughing and being genuinely worried.

[tt_charlie.insanejournal.com]

"There's not a great deal we can do except be on the look out for odd behavior but it was a relief to get to those Keepers before the dragons returned - they're very territorial about their nests," Charlie replied with a deep, warm chuckle. From the records he'd read, those plants were literally all over the place so they couldn't be restricted and the population would just have to learn to deal with those people who could not control their baser instincts to be stupid.

He lifted a hand as he shook his head, setting his beer down before continuing with his recounting. "No, no, they wouldn't do that unless their young were threatened. The tour guide realized someone was missing just after the group left the Threstal area and sent a Patronus to HQ. We found the woman in the unicorn section but she was alone - adult unicorns aren't particular shy but they don't like strangers."

"She was trying to coax them to come out, by taking off her clothes. By the time we got there, she was down to her under things," he chuckled again, his lip turning up in a wry smile. "It took four Keepers to drag her out of there. She started screaming like a banshee and fighting us when we told her that she couldn't stay. It was a good thing Kim brought a calming drought with us or it would have turned into a full-on struggle. Poor thing was loopy by the time we got her back to HQ and notified the medical center, alternating between sobbing and begging us to let her go back," Charlie finished with a sigh.

[tt_lavender]

Lavender picked up a chip as Charlie spoke, taking a bite. It was hot, but the perfect balance of crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. When he explained that the Muggle had been stripping to try and entice the unicorns, Lavender covered her mouth as she gave an unladylike sort of snort of laughter. Oh my. Lavender had met unicorns once, way back when she'd actually studied Care of Magical Creatures, but she couldn't imagine why the woman had thought that taking her clothes off would make her more appealing to the creatures.

"I shouldn't laugh," Lavender said ruefully. "There's something kind of sweet about that. If a little obsessive." She bit her lip. "I forget how especially strange this must all be for Muggles. At least we all knew about magic and dragons and unicorns... but they're thrown in at the deep end. A very deep end." Adjusting to the weather and a slightly different lunar cycle had been perplexing enough for her, but myths and legends had suddenly come to life for the Muggles, not to mention time travel. It was enough to drive anyone a little loopy, with or without a calming draught.

Her drink was brought to the table and Lavender thanked the barmaid, giving her a smile. "Sounds like no two days are ever the same at the Ark," she said after taking a sip. "Do you get much free time?"

[tt_charlie]

"Sweet and obsessive are very good descriptions in this particular case," Charlie chuckled warmly. He liked that she had a good sense of humor, reinforcing that observation from their first encounter during the Ark tour. A good sense of humor was as important as being grounded in reality, he thought. "She was convinced that being nude would show the unicorns that she was pure of heart, if not body, since she was no longer a virgin."

He plucked a chip from the pile and popped it into his mouth, chewing slowly while the barmaid attended to Lavender. There was that smile again, tantalizing as it was. It made the light lines on her face become clearer, even her scars but Charlie wasn't repelled by them. He had his own scars, some just weren't clearly written on his skin. "It has been a very deep end, for a lot of us, I'm sure. I remember how I felt when I came through," he commented with a shrug. "I do now. Things have settled in quite a bit at the Ark. The animals are beginning to breed - that's how you can tell they are feeling comfortable here - so I have more time to myself, though I do find myself at the Ark even then. What about you?"

[tt_lavender]

He had a nice laugh, Lavender thought, and he didn't judge the poor woman too hardly. Sometimes it was easy to get swept up in romantic ideals, as Lavender knew all too well. It could be so easy to throw yourself at something when you believed in it wholeheartedly. Still, she didn't harbour any illusions that any unicorns would take a shine to her. Even if they mellowed as they got older, they were still sensitive creatures and she thought she was perhaps just a touch too wolfy for them to like. When she'd got to the unicorns on her tour of the Ark, Lavender had made sure to stay at the back of the group and admire them from a distance, just in case she accidentally spooked them.

"Yeah, I guess I do. I mean, I'm not in any sort of authority position, so I don't have to work long hours. But I usually do some extra on top of the minimum." She sipped her drink. "I set myself up a little vegetable garden, but that doesn't need much work and there's only so many times a week I can force myself to go running! Life's different here, I think. Everything feels a lot less urgent. I don't feel like I have to rush around to get things done."

[tt_charlie]

Charlie took a drink and another chip, listening to Lavender speak about her own free time, trying to picture this put-together witch gardening and finding that somewhat difficult to imagine. Certainly, her background as a Hit Wizard would have put her in different situations. "It is different here. We all had routines - before - routines that we relied on so naturally that we weren't even aware of it. Here, we're forced into new routines. It puts us off balance."

"I couldn't even tell you the ratio of population between here and... before but you've already noticed the biggest difference. You aren't still doing your old job because we don't have those types of people here. The lottery prevented that. Hopefully, in this new world, we can avoid people going bad for a while," Charlie pointed out easily. "You could always volunteer at the Ark or Command center if you wanted a change of pace. I know Kingsley has been tossing around a few ideas to give people entertainment diversions."

[tt_lavender]

People were capable of doing all sorts of bad things, Lavender thought darkly, but she didn't give in to that train of thought. There were far more pleasant things to concentrate on rather than ruminating about the dark inclinations of mankind.

"I hadn't thought about volunteering. I mean, not exactly. I've been tossing around the idea of trying to set up a duelling society or even some sort of after-school club for teenagers." She bit her lip, worrying it slightly. "Thing is, I've never done anything like that before. I've always been a member or a follower or something like that. Never the leader or teacher." An endeavour like that would take her outside her comfort zone, but an awful lot of things did these days. "I'm worried I'd make an awful mess of it," she confessed, leaning forward a little. "But I guess I'll never find out unless I give it a try."

[tt_charlie]

"Well, if you're thinking in those lines, you could look into volunteering at the schools first, see how that goes for you while having a safety net in the teachers," Charlie suggested easily, his gaze dropping to where the edge of her lip disappeared for a moment, wondering just what might ruffle her a bit and, perhaps, how much he'd like to be the one doing the ruffling.

"We're all out of our element here, Lav. I was a Keeper, sure, but still a few years away from Senior, let alone being put in charge of the Reserve. Here, I'm responsible for everything in the Ark even species I never had any training in," he mused. "The difference with us is - we chose to take this chance and we have a whole new world to stretch ourselves - our preconceived notions of what we can do."

[tt_lavender]

Oh, how wholly unfair. So not only was Charlie tall and good-looking, but he seemed to be completely down-to-earth as well. All of which meant that it was impossible for her not to be attracted to him. Especially when he smiled and said reassuring things like that. "Mm," she agreed, allowing herself an open moment of admiration before smiling and giving a nod.

"Yeah. I've always had a bit of an on-off relationship with my self-confidence. But when I put my mind to something I tend to achieve it." She grinned and picked up another chip. "You're right, of course. I should look into volunteering at the school first. Best to see if I actually get on with teenagers before I start anything more ambitious. The world can be anything we want it to be, right? So many opportunities. We just have to grab them."

[tt_charlie]

"You just described everyone," Charlie laughed warmly and heartily. He gestured around them. "Everyone starts out like that. Even the most confident person you know probably still has on-off moments." Yeah, this had been a good idea. Charlie enjoyed how easy it was to talk to her and damned if he wasn't going to see where this could go.

There were only a few chips left on the plate and it was getting a little late. Charlie glanced at his datapad which confirmed the time but he loathed for the evening to be over just yet. "Speaking of grabbing opportunities, can I walk you home?"

[tt_lavender]

"And I bet everyone has times when they feel like it's more off than on." Merlin knew the war and her resulting injuries had beaten down her self-confidence to a very point. Strange as it was, taking up duelling as a hobby had helped rebuild it as it had made her feel much more in control. Of course, she'd also learned how to fake it a lot better over the years, which had never hurt in her line of work. Appearing to know what you were doing helped an awful lot.

At Charlie's request, Lavender nodded before she could even find the words to agree. "I'd really like that." Her glass was almost empty and another drink would have revealed her to be something of a giggly lightweight, even with chips to lessen the effect. She smiled, knowing that he didn't have to walk her home, but very pleased that he'd made the offer; it would have been easier for them to both apparate away, but walking meant he wanted to spend more time with her. Very much enjoying his company, she warmed to that thought. It would have been foolish to turn him down.

She finished the last sip of her drink. "I think I'm ready to go whenever you are."

[tt_charlie]

Ah, he liked the way she chose to look at things. He wasn't going to wager just how much of her self-image had been affected by her ordeal but it was clear that she was a very pretty witch and had probably been the object of a great deal of attention before the attack. Charlie smiled when she agreed to let him walk her home, waiting while she drained the last bit of her drink before standing.

Tapping his datapad, Charlie included her drink onto his bill and then he held his arm out to her. "It looks like the rain is holding off, so we're in luck," he stated, escorting her down to the path and he waited while she indicated which way to go before heading in that direction. The walk was a pleasant one, with some small talk, but mainly just enjoying the company he had. It took a few minutes to get to her home but Charlie walked her to the door and made sure she was safely inside before apparating home.